Another villa rental bank transfer payment thread...

[fatblokeflorida]

Originally Posted by ELLENUT

It all sounds fine to me. I always do the checks etc... but nothings 100% so I always have a little nagging doubt until I arrive.
I asuume they are giving you a cheaper price if they are not having to pay Homeaway fee's?

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Yes a cheaper quote without the Homeaway fees. Just had a thought - would this scenario be covered under the end supplier failure section of a travel insurance policy?

[ELLENUT]

Originally Posted by fatblokeflorida

Yes a cheaper quote without the Homeaway fees. Just had a thought - would this scenario be covered under the end supplier failure section of a travel insurance policy?

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I don't see why it would make a difference who you book through.Best to check the wording in your policy to be on the safe side.

We ussually book direct with owners of villa's - it looks like all ok with your checks etc so if it were me I would go ahead and save the extra cost too

[Pussycat Doll]

Originally Posted by fatblokeflorida

As a villa owner, can I just ask whether you use airbnb to list your villa and if you do, do they offer any protection for renters although I guess if paying by cc then you would get section 75 protection anyway? Reason I ask is there is another villa on there that we like, it's more expensive as its 4 bedrooms which we really don't need this trip but it would presumably give us peace of mind being able to pay by cc should something go wrong.

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I don’t use Airbnb or Homeaway or any of the big sites that doesn’t do any checks regarding villa ownership or licenses so unfortunately I can’t answer your question

[Lisbon]

As said. Homeaway are a nightmare for owners payment and fees wise. You never seem to get what you expect.
The only thing that concerns me is the owner doesn't want a damage deposit because it's too much hassle.? Surely not as much hassle as paying for any damage
Rob

[Northerndave]

Op, it sounds like you've done as much due diligence as you can. With that level of knowlege, I would have gone ahead and booked.

I would also mention that over the last 2-3 years there has been a significant reduction in Villas advertised on HomeAway, due I believe to the large service fees now involved.

[fatblokeflorida]

Originally Posted by Sue F

We advertise our villa on Homeaway and everything was fine with them until they changed their payment provider last August, since then we have had a nightmare trying to sort out our new payment details and get approved to take payments via their system.

Based on our recent experiences, I am guessing that this is a similar problem to what the OP's owners are having and that is probably why they are having to do down the direct payment route - it might also explain why the owner was provided with the contact information, which is unusual.

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So that would presumably explain why we got the error message when we originally tried to make the payment online on Homeaway? The more I think about this for a booking fee of about $170 however much I disagree with it and would rather not pay it for the extra cc protection we get I think I would rather pay that way but if the owners are unable to accept payment through Homeaway then I'm not sure what we do next?

[fatblokeflorida]

Originally Posted by Magnificent

No I don't think so - HomeAway still take the money in this situation from the guest - they just don't pay it out to the owner. (You can see an obvious problem with that. Although I was very patient in this situation, spending hours banging my head against a brick wall with their call centre, and waiting over a fortnight to be paid after the guest arrives, not all owners will be this patient, so at some point I'll not be surprised to hear of an owner who felt they had no choice but to ask a guest to leave as they couldn't get their money out of HomeAway.)

Instead, the main reason for getting an error message - which happens a lot - about 1 in 3 online bookings for me - is that your bank has declined the transaction. You may need to call from your bank to whitelist VRBO/Homeaway and then rebook. Though as someone who takes about 20 bookings a year through HomeAway, overall I think they cause more problems than they solve.

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It definitely wasn't my bank as I called them straight afterwards as I'd tried about 3 or 4 times to get the payment through. My bank confirmed no payments had gone through and they hadn't declined or blocked any transactions.

[7SeasSailor]

Originally Posted by fatblokeflorida

Yes a cheaper quote without the Homeaway fees. Just had a thought - would this scenario be covered under the end supplier failure section of a travel insurance policy?

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I don't think that your insurance will cover the risk that you exposed yourself to by sending your money by bank transfer.

[fatblokeflorida]

Originally Posted by 7SeasSailor

I don't think that your insurance will cover the risk that you exposed yourself to by sending your money by bank transfer.

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Yeah thats correct. I called them earlier today just to double check and they confirmed that to be the case.

[TheHughesCrew]

We have booked a Dibb villa, they haven’t asked for a damage deposit either. And I’m happy to bank transfer then the money, as requested.

Hope you get booked, and enjoy your holiday